https://youtu.be/bvF74No5XUI?si=b8pKb1bpdXtz-9Z4
Deep in the Tianjin Basin outside Beijing stands Goldin Finance 117 — a 597-meter, 117-story megatower that is completely abandoned. It is the tallest abandoned building in human history, and the reason why has almost nothing to do with engineering.
This is the story of how a billionaire’s vision for an entirely new luxury district — complete with polo fields, a wine museum, and the highest observation deck on Earth — collided with a stock market crash, a construction industry that couldn’t stop pouring concrete once it started, and a market that never showed up.
Inside this video: the 941 piles and the 120-hour continuous concrete pour that gave Goldin Finance 117 one of the most sophisticated foundations ever built, the mega-columns that let it survive typhoon winds and seismic loads, the 2015 stock crash that silenced the site overnight, and the slow, unstoppable physics of what happens when a 117-story concrete-and-steel skeleton is left exposed to rain, freezing winters, and rust for nearly a decade.
You’ll also see why China’s later ban on supertall buildings makes finishing the tower nearly impossible — and why demolishing it may be even harder.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 The 117-Story Tower Nobody Uses
01:08 Not an Engineering Failure
01:56 The Billionaire’s Vision Behind Goldin 117
03:21 Engineering an Impossible Foundation
04:22 Building the Mega-Columns
05:14 The Topping-Out Ceremony
05:32 The Money Stops